Director of Product at Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
Real User
Top 5
Helps in agile planning and tracks project with easy deployment
Pros and Cons
  • "JIRA has helped us reduce the rate of unseen or undetectable issues in the future. It has also helped us understand the demand overload across the defense team, including capacity and availability, and how we can leverage different teams to ensure overall success."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use the solution for large-scale agile planning in our organization and ensure that every project aspect is properly accounted for, like individual products, logged correctly, and progress tracked through the portfolio dashboard. The scenario planning feature impacted your strategic decision-making.

    I use this data for resource allocation, called corrective measures or actions where you can take corrective measures beyond reporting. I also use this for backlog grooming and tracking progress.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Team collaboration has been enhanced because JIRA provides a comprehensive overview of key initiatives and their respective stages. This facilitates a better understanding of the progress of tasks, whether independent teams or specific individuals are working on them. Our integration with Slack allows seamless communication, enabling us to create tickets directly from Slack, which is synced with JIRA. This feature is highly convenient for fostering collaboration across our organization's product, technology, QA, and other teams.

    What is most valuable?

    JIRA has helped us reduce the rate of unseen or undetectable issues in the future. It has also helped us understand the demand overload across the defense team, including capacity and availability, and how we can leverage different teams to ensure overall success.

    What needs improvement?

    From a usability standpoint, JIRA doesn't work properly with excessive information on the dashboard. It would be beneficial if the product team could modernize or customize the dashboard to tailor it to individual users' needs. For instance, I might only require a few key metrics on my dashboard, whereas another user might need a different information set. Introducing modularity in how information is displayed or communicated to the end user could simplify the user experience and improve overall usability.

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    May 2024
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    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using JIRA Portfolio for seven years. We are using the latest version of the solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    250 users are using this solution.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I did work with Monday.com. It was a disaster to manage across teams, particularly with updates from individual teams. 

    How was the initial setup?

    The deployment is easy and takes a week to complete. There haven't been any major challenges with our IT team's new upgrade version of JIRA. As end users, we haven't encountered any challenges either. Two or three people are required for the deployment.

    What about the implementation team?

    Deployment was handled solely by our internal IT team. We did not engage any third-party assistance. Initially, we actively participated in defining our desired user experience during the deployment phase, mainly focusing on aspects such as access, SSO integration, and other functionalities. Beyond that, it was easy.

    What other advice do I have?

    The scenario planning feature in JIRA does have a direct impact on meeting system requirements. It assists in identifying future quarterly planning initiatives, aiding in prioritizing customer-focused tasks. This functionality consolidates numerous initiatives, helping teams pinpoint the most relevant ones to achieve specific goals. 

    JIRA isn't a new framework. With multiple teams involved, including product development, finance, security, data privacy, and more, the goal is to facilitate collaboration and provide end-to-end visibility, enabling intervention whenever necessary. Collaboration and visibility are key areas of focus when developing products like JIRA. Additionally, other products, such as Monday.com, offer similar functionalities, and the adoption rate in the market depends on which product effectively meets these evolving needs.

    I recommend the solution.

    Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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    PeerSpot user
    Srikanth RB - PeerSpot reviewer
    BA Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Top 5
    A user-friendly solution that has good reporting and can be used for project management and delivery
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution has good reporting and is very user-friendly."
    • "It would be really nice if the solution provided a heads-up every time they enhance something or add new features."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use JIRA Portfolio for project management and delivery. We follow a Kanban board for new tasks, schedules, releases, bugs, and enhancements. Every new project is onboarded on JIRA Portfolio.

    What is most valuable?

    JIRA Portfolio is easy-to-use and has a lot of data we can track easily. The solution has good reporting and is very user-friendly. The developers can pick it up easily, and the solution's collaboration is very nice. It helps resolve a lot of collaboration issues, requirement issues, and also the metrics part. We can track the metrics straightforwardly and then see where we stand and what needs to be done.

    What needs improvement?

    It would be really nice if the solution provided a heads-up every time they enhance something or add new features. Recently, we had an issue because they changed the structure of using demo accounts. We didn't have any heads up and were struggling with what to do and how to go about it. We had to reach out to a lot of people, ask if they were also facing the same issue, and then we finally had to figure it out ourselves.

    JIRA Portfolio is an amazing tool, but it would be much simpler if it provided a heads-up about how to go about new changes beforehand. The documentation for these changes is available online, but it's too much. If the solution comes up with a change, it should only provide information for that particular change. Otherwise, we'll have to spend a lot of time looking into a lot of documentation.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been working with JIRA Portfolio for four years on a continuous basis.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    JIRA Portfolio is a stable solution. We've not come across bugs in the solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    JIRA Portfolio is a scalable solution with no storage, user, or project issues. Around 18 users are using the solution in our organization.

    How are customer service and support?

    Initially, when we had to configure the solution, we contacted its technical support team, which is well organized.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    Before JIRA Portfolio, we used Microsoft Project, which was messy and painful with its Excel sheets.

    How was the initial setup?

    The best thing about JIRO Portfolio is that its initial setup is very easy. You can start a Kanban board in a couple of minutes and then start communicating and adding users.

    What was our ROI?

    Our organization has seen a return on investment with JIRA Portfolio regarding the ease and the issues in managing the project or program, collaborative and documentation issues, and requirement issues. With JIRA Portfolio, there's improvement in the processes, the execution, and the delivery time.

    What other advice do I have?

    We use a cloud version of the JIRA Portfolio.

    My suggestion would be to come up with a customization plan or a business case regarding what you need for a particular project and what is possible and what is not possible with JIRA Portfolio. Then, present that business case to the technical team to avoid issues later.

    I've seen scenarios where we didn't put forth a particular question and had to reconfigure and move everything to a new project. It's best to understand the project requirements and then configure accordingly to avoid such a situation.

    Overall, I rate JIRA Portfolio a nine out of ten.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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    Buyer's Guide
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    May 2024
    Learn what your peers think about JIRA Portfolio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
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    Rohit Nagar - PeerSpot reviewer
    Pre-Sales Solution Engineer at Amrut software pvt ltd
    Reseller
    Top 5
    An exceptionally stable tool for portfolio and project management requiring an easy setup phase
    Pros and Cons
    • "In general, the valuable features of the tool are its capabilities concerning dependency reports and task status."
    • "The team-centric view is slightly weaker in JIRA compared to its competitors, especially considering how I can evaluate how each resource has been placed, not just in one project but across JIRA."

    What is our primary use case?

    JIRA Portfolio gets used by my company's customers for its capabilities, like portfolio management, project management, and generating high-level project reviews for their CXOs.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable features of the solution for my customers are the product's ability to generate dependency reports and provide the basic view where they evaluate the task status, like to which team it got assigned with respect to certain versions and how they are placed.

    In general, the valuable features of the tool are its capabilities concerning dependency reports and task status.

    What needs improvement?

    The team-centric view is slightly weaker in JIRA compared to its competitors, especially considering how I can evaluate how each resource has been placed, not just in one project but across JIRA. JIRA fails to showcase particular information missing, including how resources are placed and the capacity in the coming weeks or in a particular time zone.

    The product's scalability should be improved in the future. The big setback when I look at JIRA Portfolio is that though we provide multiple kinds of templates, like JWM or JSM, in place, JIRA doesn't give you an option where you can play with multiple kinds of project methodologies. If you look at the bigger picture, Atlassian gives you a box mechanism where it has an approach where it provides lean, LeSS, and waterfall as well, and that particular flavor is missing in JIRA Portfolio.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using JIRA Portfolio for the last four years. My company has a partnership with Atlassian. My company is a platinum partner of Atlassian in India. I use the solution's latest version.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    It is a stable solution since I haven't faced any issues. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

    My customers are mostly enterprise-sized businesses. My company does serve medium segment clients as well. With respect to JIRA Portfolio, we get many queries from enterprise customers.

    How are customer service and support?

    The delay in response from the solution's technical support causes us to beat around the bush to identify the exact issue. I rate the technical support a nine out of ten.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    How was the initial setup?

    On a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy, I rate the initial setup an eight or nine since it is not that difficult. We can do a little bit of customization, and configuration is pretty much straightforward.

    The solution is deployed on Atlassian Cloud.

    The time taken for deployment depends upon the configuration of JIRA Portfolio and what its users do with it. Depending on what the customers want from the tool, it may take a day to a week.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a six. The product is slightly on the inexpensive front considering its competitive feature at the pricing point it offers.

    What other advice do I have?

    If an organization requires just the reporting or portfolio view at a high level and is majorly operating on the agile front, JIRA Portfolio is the right product for them. If a company has multiple project methodologies and wants something beyond just a Gantt view in BigPicture might be the right choice.

    Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Other
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
    PeerSpot user
    Project Manager at Allianz
    Real User
    Good documentation, good visualization of tickets, and relatively stable
    Pros and Cons
    • "The documentation is very well done."
    • "JIra is very poor at reporting."

    What is most valuable?

    With JIRA Portfolio, you can do your portfolio after projects and right away you are able to see all the tickets of your portfolio. You can change the project which belongs in the portfolio at any moment and you can do any simulation you want. You can have many scenarios, and, when we agree with the scenario, we can push the scenario inside to JIRA.

    The documentation is very well done.

    What needs improvement?

    Today, when we want to prepare PI planning, we have a dedicated plugin, which allows us to print a ticket. We have beautiful tickets which is an advantage. We can print tickets and put them right on the wall. It's better for PI planning due to the fact that you can read information, and it's always written in the same way.

    On each ticket, you can see priority, version, et cetera, always written in the same way. If you write it directly, however, it's not always readable. JIRA Portfolio can help you during PI planning because you can write your dependencies directly. 

    However, it would be better if you didn't have this manual part of the process. If we don't have to print a ticket and to put a ticket on the wall, it would be easier. It's very difficult, for example, for sizeable companies to find large rooms to do PI planning.

    With coronavirus, we have to work from home. PI planning needs to be re-imagined. It needs to be virtual, not physical. It would be better if it was more like Klaxon, where your ticket is pushed to a blackboard.

    JIRA is very poor at reporting.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been using the solution since the beginning of this year. It's been just over six months.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We introduced JIRA in 2018 and since then we haven't had any issues with stability. In my opinion, two years isn't a sufficient amount of time to really gauge stability, however, that said, it's never given us trouble.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have about 2,000 people in the company using the solution.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    We have reached out to technical support in the past, however, we prefer to use Google or search the forum. In fact, if you send a request to Atlassian, it's like throwing a bottle into the sea and waiting on a response. If I send a ticket directly to the expanded portal, I have a response 24 hours later, and if I send a ticket to Atlassian on JIRA Core, I'll get a response maybe one month later. It's easier, therefore, to search for a solution yourself than to expect a response from Atlassian.

    How was the initial setup?

    In order to set up the solution properly, you need proper training first.

    We have created a system inside our company. I do a sort-of training for JIRA Portfolio. I have coached about 1,000 people. I would estimate that you need two hours of training for a JIRA team member and two additional hours for a JIRA administrator, or a project administrator, and about two additional hours on top of that for JIRA Portfolio. If we set up, it takes one day. And of course, after setup, users will have to practice on the system to get used to it.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    We compared five different products last year, including JIRA Portfolio, BigPicture (which is another plugin available on the Atlassian marketplace), JIRA Align, and a Micro Focus Solution. We also looked at Planview, which we already use to forecast for budgeting purposes.

    We chose JIRA Portfolio for two reasons: firstly, due to the fact that it was connected directly with to JIRA, so we have a direct synchronization between BigPicture and Jira Portfolio, and secondly because you don't have to really plan anything to make it happen.

    The difference between JIRA Align and JIRA Portfolio is that JIRA Align is for a large company, for example, a multinational and when you want to aggregate several JIRA instances. As we have only one Jira instance, it's more accurate for us to take on something like JIRA Portfolio.

    What other advice do I have?

    In general, we are on a server configuration and not a cloud solution. That means, each year we have that specific version until we update it. I suppose since we have installed the JIRA Portfolio in January, it's the last version. However, I'm not sure.

    I'd rate the solution eight out of ten overall.

    If the solution would work for others depends on the size of their company. 

    If we had to do the implementation again, we should have bought JIRA Portfolio at the same time as JIRA Core. I think we did a mistake by introducing JIRA Portfolio without it. When you buy JIRA Core, you have only three levels of subtask stories and epic in JIRA, and it's difficult for us to have only three different levels. With JIRA Portfolio, you can have as many additional levels as you want. We adopted a scaled agile model with squads and tribes. We need to implement a safe model instead.

    We've since introduced, as a pilot, two additional levels as we believe it's better to have all level you need at the beginning of your project.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Developer at Daum Communications
    Real User
    Along with its high scalability and ease of setup, the solution tracks issues efficiently
    Pros and Cons
    • "I think the solution's most important and valuable feature is its ability to track the issues."
    • "Our major team does not control or manage JIRA server well since sometimes there is trouble using the solution, which is a problem. The solution's speed needs to be improved."

    What is our primary use case?

    I just use JIRA Portfolio, which is available on the server.

    How has it helped my organization?

    When I develop software, there are many things and we need to check the status. Then, I use JIRA Portfolio in all areas, such as JIRA's use for tracking software issues from QAT. When we needed to check the plan of our project and manage the project status, I usually used JIRA. And if there is some field issue or customer service field issue, we gather the field issues using JIRA.

    What is most valuable?

    I think the solution's most important and valuable feature is its ability to track the issues. We can also check the status using JIRA, which is a good function in the solution.

    What needs improvement?

    Our major team does not control or manage JIRA server well since sometimes there is trouble using the solution, which is a problem. The solution's speed needs to be improved.

    In the future, adding certain functions should be made easier in JIRA.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using JIRA Portfolio for around ten years. I am a software developer who uses the solution. Also, I don't remember the version of the solution I am using.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten. It is a very scalable solution. Around 2,000 people are using the solution. In my lab, 10,000 people are using the solution.

    In the future, we may change to an ARM system.

    How are customer service and support?

    I haven't contacted customer support yet. For doubts, I talk with my infrastructure team. I think JIRA's tech support is good. I rate the solution's technical support an eight out of ten.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    Previously, I didn't use a different system. I just opted for Jira.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is easy. I rate it a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one is a difficult setup, and ten is an easy setup.

    I can't comment on the time taken for deployment since I don't manage JIRA server.

    Maybe there are some people who manage the server using JIRA application. I guess three people are managing the solution.

    What about the implementation team?

    A set of people were involved in the deployment of the solution.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing an eight. There is an additional cost to be paid for some kinds of tools.

    What other advice do I have?

    I recommend the solution to those planning to use it. I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    On-premises
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Project manager at WITS
    Real User
    Top 20
    A scalable and seamless solution that enables users to efficiently manage tasks and achieve more within the stipulated timeline and budget
    Pros and Cons
    • "The tool helps us achieve more within the stipulated timeline and budget."
    • "JIRA and Confluence must be linked automatically."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use the solution for software development management. It includes the timeline and the requirement definition.

    How has it helped my organization?

    As a project management team, we’re supposed to manage the teams that develop different products. It can be hectic if we don't have a tool. With JIRA, it's very easy and seamless. All the teams can give their updates, check on their backlogs, and work on them.

    What is most valuable?

    The ability to move across various stages from solution discovery to completion is valuable. We can assign specific tasks to users. We can also see the timeline and the progress of the projects. It makes our work easy and efficient. The tool helps us achieve more within the stipulated timeline and budget.

    What needs improvement?

    JIRA and Confluence must be linked automatically. What I change on JIRA must be updated in Confluence if it is related. If a task has been completed in JIRA and is mentioned somewhere in Confluence, the status must also be updated on Confluence.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using the solution for one year.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The product is scalable. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten. Approximately 50 people are using the tool in our organization. We are planning to increase the usage in the future.

    How was the initial setup?

    I rate the ease of setup an eight out of ten.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    I rate the pricing a six out of ten on a scale where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

    What other advice do I have?

    Before using the solution, we were working manually. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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    PeerSpot user
    Sibin John - PeerSpot reviewer
    Site Reliability and DevOps Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
    Real User
    Top 5
    Efficient tool for project planning and great for visualization and organizing of the tasks
    Pros and Cons
    • "The most valuable feature for me is the visualization and organizing of the tasks. We can have a pick, and then we can stick the multiple issues under that, and then we can again have a sort of hierarchical installation, and that's very useful."
    • "There is room for improvement in terms of scalability."

    What is our primary use case?

    We use it for ticketing and project planning, and documentation, mainly for ticketing, department-wise ticketing, for the creation.

    What is most valuable?

    The most valuable feature for me is the visualization and organizing of the tasks. We can have a pick, and then we can stick the multiple issues under that, and then we can again have a sort of hierarchical installation, and that's very useful. 

    And I've even worked with multiple analysts, like, for services, and I work on Jira. 

    What needs improvement?

    There is room for improvement in terms of scalability. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using this solution for five years. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The solution is very stable. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. Everyone in our organization use Jira. So, there are more than a thousand end users. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. There is some room for improvement.

    How are customer service and support?

    We experienced one to two downtimes in a year. However, it was supported by our internal tech support team.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    I have worked with other solutions as well but as far as my real experience, one of the best tools that they can go for is Jira.

    How was the initial setup?

    We are using the SaaS version, so we need to set it up on our own site.

    Just the user sign-up, and then the central SSO system. We have our own SSO with Microsoft Azure, so it should be pretty straightforward.

    What other advice do I have?

    Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. It is a good solution. 

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Microsoft Azure
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Researcher at University of Manitoba
    Real User
    Stable with good and fast notifications for project team members
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution includes good and fast notifications for other project team members."
    • "The solution's look and feel could be a bit more intuitive and user friendly."

    What is our primary use case?

    I use the solution in cases when I need to report something such as escalating a scale. 

    What is most valuable?

    The solution includes good and fast notifications for other project team members. 

    What needs improvement?

    The solution's look and feel could be a bit more intuitive and user friendly. 

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using the solution for one year. 

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is rated an eight out of ten. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The scalability is rated a seven out of ten. 

    How are customer service and support?

    The technical support is good so is rated a nine out of ten. 

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    What other advice do I have?

    It is important to learn about the solution's functionalities and features to prepare for use. 

    I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free JIRA Portfolio Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: May 2024
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    Download our free JIRA Portfolio Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.